


why thunder and lightning shake the earth

by taylorstwice



Category: ITZY (Band)
Genre: Angst, F/F, I only know how to hurt, I'm lowkey scared of thunders that's why i came up with this, This is inspired of these last few nights because it's been thundering as hell, chaejin is a very cute kid, it's sad, ryuryeong, there's no good ending here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26680228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylorstwice/pseuds/taylorstwice
Summary: Have you ever wondered why the Earth rumbles whenever thunder and lightning come?
Relationships: Choi Jisu | Lia/Hwang Yeji, Lee Chaeryeong/Shin Ryujin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 39





	why thunder and lightning shake the earth

**“Mommy, why does the ground shake whenever thunder and lightning hits the Earth? Mama, why is it even thundering in the first place?”** The age of the 4 also means the age of curiosity, Yeji and Jisoo realizes that when their kid, Chaejin, started asking them random things when she turned four and her first baby tooth fell out.

Now with her monkey designed blankets draped over her small body, the lightning glinting against the window, her parents sitting on both of her side, Chaejin cannot help but wonder about the thunder and lightning. She never understood why lightning comes and why thunder follows after it whenever it rains. She never understood why thunders and lightnings were made in the first place. Although her Mama Yeji told her that she was too young to know why, Chaejin still finds the thunder annoying.

She finds it annoying because whenever she’s playing with her friends, and the thunder comes, Heehyun always scampers away and runs to her house - with Wonjoo tailing behind her since they’re neighbors - leaving her all alone in the playground. The thunder scares away her friends. The thunder doesn’t want her to be happy. 

She finds the thunder annoying because when it thunders, she knows that the dark scary clouds would follow soon. The dark clouds that loom all over the sky like those scary monsters she sees in the TV, also mean that the large beads of water would start falling soon, and she hates the rain. Rain being present means not being able to do anything outside, rain means being too cold for her liking, rains mean being cooped up inside the house.

And lastly, Chaejin finds the thunder annoying because it’s too loud. She hates it more when it comes at nights. She hates it when she hears that soft crying coming from the room next to her. She hates it when she hears her parents’ footsteps rushing over to the room. She hates it when the thunder bothers her little sister and her parents. She hates it.

Jisoo sighs when she sees that Chaejin wouldn’t sleep without any of her questions answered so she gives her wife one glance before reaching out and caressing the kid’s plump cheeks. **“Jin-ah. Do you want to hear a story?”**

 **“No mommy, I don’t want to hear a story. I want to know why thunders are made so I can fight it and make it disappear so it won’t scare my friends and Yuna.”** Chaejin crosses her arms on her chest, putting on her upset face.

**“Okay then buttercup, I’ll tell you how thunders and lightnings were made and why it flies through the sky above the Earth.”**

**“Once upon a time, there was this girl that lived all alone. Her name, was Chaeryeong.”**

_Chaeryeong pushes herself up from her bed, stretching her arms up as the light from the sun peaks through the flying curtains on her slightly opened window, the wind passing through the small gap. Chaeryeong stares at this for a while before shrugging it off and crawling towards the end of her bed._

_She slips on her slippers and walks towards her vanity, grabs her brush and starts brushing her hair, puts it in a high ponytail afterwards. She walks down the stairs into her living room, pets Chaeryu and then enters her kitchen to make her food._

_She has been living her life like this for the past 12 years._

_Her house stands at the top of a hill, below her lies the town she had wished to see when she was a kid._

_From the balcony on her second floor, Chaeryeong can see how the townspeople went with their lives, and for her personal entertainment, she had named them herself._

_She had seen how short haired Eunbi always visits the bakery at the break of dawn, and leaves by midday with her hands on her cheeks. She had seen how brown haired Bora follows grey haired Yoohyeon around, holding a bouquet of flowers at her back, but throws it away whenever she sees Yoohyeon approaching that purple haired girl she had named Minji. She had seen how love blossomed between Yena and Yuri, the girls who always waited for each other by the library house near the bakery. She had seen how blue haired Siyeon, who she thinks is Bora’s cousin, caused chaos at the plaza by scaring the kids, and how she only stopped when the granddaughter of the library house, Gahyeon, stopped her. At first Chaeryeong only thought there would be nothing brewing between the two, but she never knew that that town was full of secrets, secrets that people take to their graves._

_Out of all the love stories that she witnessed and was witnessing, Chaeryeong never loved anything more than the love story between Bora and Yoohyeon._

_She always wondered until when Bora would keep chasing after the girl who’s too oblivious of her feelings for her._

_She wanted to be one of them, walking amongst the other people in the streets wearing pretty dresses, flowers that she picked from a kind neighbor’s garden decorating her hair, looking around the town like she belonged._

_But that was before. Before the townspeople staked her parents right in front of her._

_Before the blood of her parents splattered across their own land._

_Before she was left all alone at the top of the hill._

_She never understood why the townspeople hated her parents. Hated their bloodline. Her parents never explained to her why they were living so far away from the other people, why they live in that hill she once considered hell whenever she would get jealous seeing the other kids playing, why she was so…kept away from all the history her parents and her ancestors had with other people._

_And looking at them now with disinterest in her eyes, watching them from the place she’s ever known as home, Chaeryeong tattoos in her mind that she won’t ever know._

_She sips her tea as she watches small Bora follow Yoohyeon around, the nervousness evident on her steps as she keeps her distance away from the gray haired girl, it was funny how Chaeryeong was able to pick see it even if she was looking at her balcony._

_**“God, I hope she finally tells her.”** Years of being alone and just watching people from her balcony taught Chaeryeong how to read body language. All the subtle moves, the ones they think most people won’t be able, she sees them and she understands them. That’s why she knows what Bora’s feelings. She doesn’t understand them, she doesn’t feel them, but she knows._

_**“She has been wanting to tell her everything.”** Chaeryeong lets out a smile that gets hidden as she raises her teacup, praising Bora in her head after the short girl tried raising her hand at her back, trying to let Yoohyeon see the flowers she was holding._

_The gesture seemed so small, but for Chaeryeong, who’s been watching Bora this whole time, it was something big._

_It was something brave. It was something meaningful._

_**“You can do it Bora.”** She whispers._

_And like she heard it, Bora did the impossible._

_**“Chaeryeong-ah!”** Though she was someone isolated from the town, Chaeryeong was never alone._

_She had her pet dog, and she had Ryujin._

_Ryujin._

_Chaeryeong looks down and the smile on her face earlier only widens more._

_There, standing below her, is Ryujin._

_The woodcutter’s daughter._

_Her only friend besides Chaeryu._

_**“Have you eaten?”** Chaeryeong nods as an answer, and Ryujin smiles when she sees that the girl isn’t lying._

_**“Do you want to come down? Let’s talk.”** Most people find those two words scary, but for Chaeryeong, it was everything._

_Ryujin’s **“let’s talk”** meant staying under the sun and greeting the moon until the night with them in her garden, Ryujin sprawled next to her as she kept her back resting on the fence of her porch. Ryujin’s “let’s talk” meant being able to tell her what she saw, tell her what she felt, tell her anything that she wanted to vent out. Living alone was tiresome, and painful, but Chaeryeong’s grateful that she has Ryujin with her._

_Ryujin’s **“let’s talk”** meant feeling everything she lacked. _

_And there they go, with Chaeryu sitting on her other side, Ryujin talking about the large beehive she saw in the forest today._

_**“Bora finally did it.”** Chaeryeong blurts out, cutting off Ryujin. The older girl does not take offense of it, instead she turns to look at Chaeryeong and urges her to continue._

**_“She did not throw the flowers away.”_ **

_**“She stayed behind and did not walk away when Yoohyeon talked to Minji.”** _

_Chaeryeong turns and looks at Ryujin. **“That was definitely something…right?”**_

_Ryujin smiles and nods. **“That was everything, Ryeong-ah.”**_

_Chaeryeong smiles too._

_**“But I think,”** Ryujin pulls herself up and sits, scooting closer towards Chaeryeong who welcomes the body heat. **“I get why she did that. It is the Earth’s festival after all.”**_

_Chaeryeong had never heard about Earth festival. **“What is that?”**_

_**“Earth festival is a festival that the ancestors of the town had made way back in years. People wear browned colored masks with variety of designs to signify that they are still one with the world.”** Ryujin points towards their surroundings. **“The mask could have green leaves etched to it to signify nature, drawings of winds to signify air, splashes of liquid to signify water, ashes of flame to signify fire.”** Ryujin shrugs. **“It really depends on your artistic skills.”**_

_**“What do you mean by Bora doing what she had always wanted to do, at this time because it’s Earth festival?”** _

_**“At the night when the Earth festival’s time starts to dwindle down, people of the town uses the plaza as the big place to create this big fire, and at the time when the moon shines the brightest, people would take their lovers by hand and dance in the presence of the fire, believing that Esor, the god of fire and love, would be looking over them and bestow them their wish of being together until their last breathe leave their lungs.”** _

_**“Have you…”** Chaeryeong dared to ask. **“danced with someone in the presence of the fire?”**_

_Ryujin shakes her head. **“I do not think they would want to. Not with me, at least.”**_

**_“Is it Heejin from the hall?”_ **

_Ryujin finds Chaeryeong’s curiosity cute. **“No. That was just attraction. I never really liked her like that. And besides, she already danced with Hyunjin last year.”**_

_**“I hope whoever you want to dance with, dances with you tonight.”** Chaeryeong says as she stares at the blue sky._

_**“I hope so too.”** Ryujin says, staring at her star. The star that is sitting right next to her._

_**“Wait, you know what? Screw that.”** Ryujin stands up and offers her hand to Chaeryeong._

**_“I am going to take you to the festival tonight.”_ **

* * *

**_“Ryujin, are you sure about this?”_ **

_**“Do not act suspicious and we are fine.”** Ryujin helps her wade through sea of people in the plaza, the older girl’s hand holding the younger’s tightly to prevent her from getting separated from her. **“Did you not say you wanted to see what will happen between Bora and Yoohyeon?”**_

**_“I did but if it meant that you might get in trouble, then forget about it.”_ **

_**“I am going to make you see how your favorite love story comes true.”** Ryujin says after they stop at a less crowded space._

_And she did._

_She did see how the same look, the same glint of love in Bora’s eyes, appear in Yoohyeon’s as they dance not too far from the the fire, her and Ryujin standing across from them._

_**“They finally did it, Ryu.”** Chaeryeong says as she watches in awe. **“They are finally happy.”**_

_At the lack of response, Chaeryeong turns on her heels to look for her companion, only to see her standing behind her, a few steps away, her right hand stretched between them._

_**“Would you…”** Chaeryeong reads Ryujin’s body language and she instantly wonders why it took her so long to see what was the obvious. **“like to dance with me?”**_

_A smile creeps up on Chaeryeong’s face and she quickly steps into Ryujin’s bubble of space, wrapping her arms around her neck._

_With only eyes to see as the mask hides their faces, Chaeryeong sees for the second time the same glint of love in Ryujin’s eyes, and she’s pretty sure it’s also on hers._

_It was weird but it was true. The sound of music just comes to you when you dance with the right person in the presence of the fire._

_She had asked Ryujin about it. If there was any musical instrument played while people danced beside the fire. Ryujin said there was no reason to. The people who danced beside the fire with their lovers had heard their own songs. The songs that signifies their relationship. The mark that they are with the right person to love and to live with._

_And with their own sweet song, Ryujin and Chaeryeong danced beside the fire, and Esor looked over them with a sad smile._

**_It was too early, but it was destined._ **

_Ryujin was one of the townspeople, and like them, she also had her own fair share of secrets._

_Knowing Chaeryeong for 7 years, Ryujin had loved her in 6 of them._

_She only knew that she was infatuated with her when there was that certain time when she was visiting the girl and saw her staying still by her balcony, looking over the world as if she’s looking for the answers for her undisputed questions and a pain shot through her heart when a certain thought entered her mind._

_“What if the time comes? What if the townspeople make me kill her? Just like what they did to her parents?”_

_Ryujin hated that thought, those questions, but the pain it brought cleared one thing in her._

_She was terrified of losing Chaeryeong._

_**“Chaeryeong-ah.”** Ryujin leans closer towards Chaeryeong, her hot breath hitting her mask, her eyes never leaving the contact between hers and Chaeryeong. **“Can I kiss you?”**_

_Chaeryeong thinks she can never say no._

_Deep down, this was her own love story._

_And now it was coming true._

_The younger leans closer and removes her hand from holding onto Ryujin’s neck, the music lowering in their ears as the sound of their hearts overtakes everything._

_Ryujin raises her hands and rests it on the side of Chaeryeong’s neck as the girl lifts her mask but before she can take her even closer, Chaeryeong was suddenly not in her hands anymore._

_**“I knew you were an idiot but not to this extent.”** His deep voice slips through Ryujin’s ears and she looks up to see her nightmare standing before her love._

_**“You are so dumb, you even brought the witch in our town.”** His eyes stare menacingly at her while holding Chaeryeong’s hair by her ponytail. He smirks and rips the mask off of the younger, loving how the tears quickly fill up his daughter’s eyes._

_**“Thank you for bringing her to us. We have been waiting for this for a long time.”** Ryujin’s dad pulls Chaeryeong to her feet by her hair, getting a loud scream from her. Ryujin takes a huge step towards them to stop her father but someone holds her back by her arms. **“NO FATHER, PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS.”**_

_The Earth Festival is nearing its peak, and the moon is starting to shine brighter than it ever did._

_Chaeryeong closed her eyes as her tears start to fall._

_**“Chaeryeong, no please do not believe them! I would never do this to you!”** And Chaeryeong knows that she wouldn’t._

_She trusts Ryujin that much._

_**“Take my daughter. Do whatever you want with her. She has no use for me.”** This made Chaeryeong open her eyes._

_She instantly meets Ryujin’s panicked eyes as the big muscled men drag her away._

**_“No please, father! Do not do this! She is not doing anything! She is not ba---”_ **

_Blood splatters across the floor as a stake comes out of Ryujin’s chest, one of the men behind her wearing a grisly smirk. **“She was being too loud.”**_

_Ryujin looks up from staring at the tip of the stake that went through her, her eyes beginning to fill with regret and sadness as she meets Chaeryeong’s already red eyes._

_**“I…love…you.”** She mouths before she feels the stake being pushed into her more. She plops on the floor lifelessly._

_Ryujin’s father lets go of Chaeryeong, knowing that he already inflicted the most painful wound in her heart._

_Chaeryeong screams as she finally gets to hold Ryujin in her arms, caressing her face._

_Sparks start appearing around her and after one more scream, she disappears out of thin air. But the same sparks that ignited around her earlier start appearing within the clouds as rumbles as deep as the sea shakes the earth._

* * *

**“So you mean,”** Chaejin stares up to her mommy’s eyes. **“whenever the thunder roars and the lightning shakes the Earth, it’s Chaeryeong reaching out for Ryujin?”**

 **“Yes baby, that’s right. She only found her love that night and also lost her at the same night. The thunders are her calls for Ryujin, and the lightnings are her way of touching the Earth in search of her lost love.”** Chaejin bows her head and with the way her pouted lips quiver, the two women know that the little girl is trying to hold back her tears.

After a few minutes, Chaejin looks up. She directs her attention this time on Yeji. **“And the rain that comes after?”**

Yeji caresses Chaejin’s cheek. **“That’s her tears, Chae.”**

The little girl couldn’t hold back her tears anymore. **“That’s so sad, Mama.”**

Yeji nods sadly, agreeing with the kid. **“Yes it is.”**

 **“I’m going to tell my friends about this, so they wouldn’t get too scared of the thunders and lightnings anymore.”** Jisoo turns away for a moment to wipe her tears away. Yeji, who saw her move, takes over Chaejin.

 **“Do that tomorrow, darling. Right now, you need to sleep.”** Chaejin nods her head obediently, sliding down under her covers.

**“Good night Mama. Good night Mommy.”**

**“Good night sweetie.”**

After leaving the room, Yeji slumps her back on the wall beside Chaejin’s room and stares at her wife who watches her.

She sighs sadly. **“Do you think we did the right thing?”**

Jisoo comes up to Yeji and caresses her wife’s face, just like how Yeji did with Chaejin.

**“We’re bound to tell her the truth someday, Yeji-ah. I made it less painful for her. She’s just a kid who’s bound to know how she lost both of her mothers.”**


End file.
